In challenging times, companies cut costs and restructure. Pam Bateson, Founder and CEO of Thrive Partners, explains why backing your managers with trust and coaching is the smartest investment when every penny and every person counts.
A few months ago, a CEO told me: “We need stronger leaders at the top – people with vision.”
He wasn’t wrong a
bout wanting vision – but he’d missed something right in front of him: the strength and trust waiting to be built in the middle.
Right now, many industries are facing tough calls: layoffs, hiring freezes, and constant change. Yet while budgets shrink, the work doesn’t – and it’s managers in the middle who quietly absorb the shock.
Organisations spend heavily chasing unicorn leaders at the top but often overlook the people who already hold everything together.
Middle managers.
Too often underestimated, overloaded, and asked to steady the ship without enough practical support.
In the UK, the average cost of replacing an employee is about £30,000 (Oxford Economics). Multiply that by every good manager you lose to burnout or quiet quitting, and the hidden cost can swallow any short-term savings from headcount cuts.
The myth that keeps costing you
Every year, I hear the same line: “We have a leadership pipeline problem.”
In reality, it’s often less about a pipeline and more about a trust gap sitting right in the middle of the organisation.
Look at the numbers:
- Gallup found only 21% of employees strongly trust their manager.
- Many managers say they spend up to 50% of their time on tasks unrelated to leading people.
- Nearly half of first-time managers receive no meaningful support on how to actually manage humans.
So it’s no surprise that:
- teams disengage,
- high performers leave,
- cultures fray – held together by middle managers promoted for doing well, but under-equipped to lead.
In uncertain times, this gap only grows wider.
The ripple effect (in reverse)
When managers struggle, everyone feels it.
Conversations get avoided. Performance dips. Good people leave. Morale drops just when you need it most.
Often, the response is to look up: “We need better leaders at the top!”
But it’s backwards.
Managers shape the day-to-day reality that keeps people performing and staying – especially during rough patches. They’re the bridge between strategy and delivery. If that bridge cracks, the pipeline above it won’t hold.
Why the old fix no longer works
For years, organisations tried to patch this with:
- 3-day residential leadership bootcamps
- one-off workshops on ‘How to Have Difficult Conversations’
- or simply promoting the top doer and hoping they’ll figure it out.
Most don’t.
It’s 2025. Hybrid work, tighter budgets, constant change – and managers are still expected to hold it all together, often alone.
A single course won’t cut it. Managers need real-time support to lead in the real world, not just in theory.
What actually works
At Thrive, we’ve spent years testing what helps managers stay and thrive – especially in pressured times.
It’s not complex. It’s consistency.
- Bite-sized, relevant learning – not generic slides.
- Real coaching – rooted in what they deal with every day.
- A coaching culture – so managers back each other, multiplying impact without huge extra cost.
- Ensuring first and foremost that your managers and leaders have the foundation of a strong coaching philosophy and capability in their approach.
One retail client saw a 30% drop in turnover after embedding quick, practical coaching circles for managers. No big restructure. No huge spend. Just steady, realistic support.
In another case, a manufacturing client saw absenteeism drop within months once managers felt supported to handle tough conversations properly.
As one manager recently told me:
“When someone invests in me, it feels like I’m truly valued. It makes me want to give more – and it makes me want to stay.”
A smarter retention move
In challenging times, it’s tempting to see people development as optional. But the truth is: you can’t afford unsteady managers when you’re asking more of fewer people.
Every restructure piles more pressure on the managers who stay. Back them well, and you won’t have to backfill more resignations later.
What I wish every CEO remembered
Here’s the line I repeat to every CEO I meet: Your managers decide whether people stay or go.
It’s not a glossy vision or the perks. It’s the trust people have in their manager every day.
Managers are your real retention plan, your culture stabiliser, your performance backbone.
So ask yourself:
- Have we freed them up to manage properly?
- Do they have the tools and time?
- Who’s coaching them through tough times now?
If the answer’s no, expect to pay for it later.
Trust trumps complacency every time
When budgets are tight, trust is the best currency you have.
One thing HR should take to the board
If you’re in HR or people leadership, here are three questions worth asking at your next board meeting:
- Do our managers know what good management looks like here?
- Do they have time to do it – or just more tasks?
- Who’s helping them stay steady when uncertainty hits?
Support your managers properly, and you steady the whole ship.
It all comes back to trust
I’ll share this too: when I first managed people, I got it wrong more often than I got it right.
I did what so many first-time managers do: worked longer, said yes to everything, avoided tough talks until it blew up. I learned the hard way.
Years later, I now run a digital coaching business that helps managers skip the hard way.
It’s not complicated – it’s trust, backed with practical help.
Trust them enough to coach them properly. Trust them enough to cut the noise so they can lead well. Trust them enough to invest wisely now, before costs spiral later.
One final question
Most managers don’t actually crave fancy perks. They want time to lead well, real support, and to know someone has their back.
If you’re a manager: what do you wish you had more of, right now?
If you’re a leader: how are you protecting your managers through change?
It’s possible to keep your best people, hold trust steady, and stay resilient – if you back the managers you already have.
We know at Thrive – from both our research and our work with clients – that the future world of work will require a greater emphasis on soft skill capability. We will need managers and leaders with high emotional intelligence, human-centric leadership, compassion and empathy. These are the skills that will set apart our future leaders – capabilities greatly enhanced with coaching and behavioural change.
The reality is: tough times pass. But the trust and strength you build in your managers now lasts far beyond the next quarter. And when opportunity returns, they’ll be ready to lead your people forward.
If you’re curious what this can look like, do get in touch – I’m very happy to have a chat about all things management, leadership and coaching.
Pam Bateson is CEO and co-founder of Thrive Partners, where managers and leaders get practical, people-focused coaching that sticks – even in uncertain times.
